From The Frying Pan Into The Fire Analysis

In “From the Frying Pan into the Fire”, Arlie Russell Hochschild stated, “Capitalism is not, then, simply a system in the service of the family and community; it competes with the family” (188). People struggle using the capitalism system to balance time between family and work, because time is limited and people do not want to waste it living in someone else’s life. This can make capitalism to be somewhat ‘selfish’, because it focuses to how oneself’s own happiness and successfulness comes first; similar to how in “Strange Creatures”, Susan Blackmore describes memes to be ‘selfish’, since their sole purpose is to be copied, spread, and to be successful without a care on how it will affect us.

There is other instances that capitalism and memes are further continued on to be compared in their similarities, one being how capitalism spreads similar to how memes spreads. To illustrate, capitalism

“Between 1969 and 1996 the increase in American mothers’ paid work combined with a shift toward single-parent families has led to an average decrease of 22 hours a week of parental time available (outside of paid work) to spend with children” (Hochschild 189). The decline in family time hosts a lot of problems, including family failures and alcohol and drug abuse. Hochschild further stated, “The role of family in people’s idea of “the good life” decline while the importance of having money increased” (187). This can be connected to Blackmore’s description of memes and imitation, because people first have a belief of one thing but then moves on to the next belief. People moves on, or changes beliefs probably from being surrounded around other influences, or to keep up with the trend and relate to everyone else. It is similar to the expression that if one person does it then they can do it too or it is alright to do something if someone else does